archited
Senior Member
This is where a responsible City government would step in.
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Miscellaneous
- Thread starter Daveography
- Start date
_Citizen_Dane_
Active Member
In defence of the City, they've been trying their damnedest, same with the Province. From what I understand, both parties have been in talks for the better part of three-or-so years with the property owner to try and come up with a solution. Again, as I've said before, it's just too hard to save buildings in this province when the owner doesn't want to play ball.
Some pictures from last spring:
archited
Senior Member
It seems to me that with an historical mandate backing the City and the power of eminent domain when the public good is at risk, there should be no question here -- same for the Province. Tell me what is the point of designating a property or building an historical resource if there is no teeth behind the action to preserve.
Avenuer
Senior Member
The problem is the Provincial 'Historical Resources Act', which allows municipalities to designate properties against the wishes of private landowners, only if they compensate them for fair market value, which is garbage because a site like the Minchau is worth millions, so hard for the City to justify spending that amount of money unfortunately.
archited
Senior Member
^^^^ Maybe if the City would sell some of its many other land holdings that it has held onto for years and years and years to no clear purpose, it could find a few shekels to preserve some of the resources that are worth holding onto,
_Citizen_Dane_
Active Member
There are plenty of teeth behind a designation — it’s literally made law that a Municipal or Provincial Historic Resource are undestroyable. The problem comes with buildings like the Minchau, where they’re not designated. There always seems to be confusion every time a news article mentions a demolished building was on the “Inventory of Historic Resources.” To be clear that’s not a designation. The Inventory is simply a City-maintained list, curated by the Edmonton Historical Board, that catalogues properties that are architecturally and/or culturally significant that should be designated, if the owner wishes. The Mincahu was on that list but didn’t ever get further. The only perk to being on the Inventory versus not is (I believe) the City Heritage Officer has to review the demolition permit.
Honestly, and this might come as a shock to most, but Edmonton has one of Canada’s leading designation programs. A lot gets demolished and it’s extremely regrettable, but the City’s crafted a program that’s certainly on the right track. Across Edmonton we have nearly 200 protected properties, whereas Calgary has only just reached 100. Winnipeg, a city with a very clear sense of historicity, has just over 200. We’re doing a good job for the most part, it’s just outdated provincial legislation (see my comment here) that’s holding us back from winning fights like this one.
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Avenuer
Senior Member
That is part of the plan, though I don't think it was priority up until recently (unfortunately).
IceCreamMan
Active Member
On a related heritage note, the Iron Works building complex (including the north and south annex structures) on 96th Street is about to get a significant rehabilitation and revitalization.
_urbanite
Senior Member
The demolition of the A. Minchau building had me wondering about this one. Happy to hear this
Edmcowboy11
Senior Member
Which building is that one? Where exactly?
_Citizen_Dane_
Active Member
Edmcowboy11
Senior Member
Aaaaaa, that one. Ok now I remember. That's cool. Any ideas what would be slated to go in there?
Disraeli
Active Member
Just to clarify, the province or municipality does not have to compensate for the value of the entire property, only for any decrease in economic value caused by the designation. It often ends up being a-lot less than people assume.
cliffapotamus
Active Member
There's nothing on Gardner's website, and i can't find the developer. I really really really wanna see plans for this, or whatever they applied with (which was apparently not terribly well put-together) just as a bit of dark comedy. What kind of proposal gets panned like this, on so many aspects? lie, i find the EDC can be kinda picky at times, but these issues sound pretty serious. I really wanna know what neighboourhood was this about to be thrust upon lol
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@cliffapotamus Holyrood Gardens still ranks as having the worst EDC reviews in history. TWICE.